Why am I asking these questions if I bought a Lazair almost three months ago? Well the weekend before I drove up to see and buy the Lazair, I found on this site, I got up on top of my van to get a better veiw of some Hang Gliders and Paragliders launching off a local mountain. When I climbed down onto the window and jumped I landed flat footed and thought "Oh thats not good" but didn't hurt. Next morning I woke up in pain. I've had back pain before and figured this would go away in a coule of day's. By the next Saturday the pain was going down my right leg. that night i thought, the hell with it, I'm not going to lose this Lazair. My wifes car has cruise control, so I drove a couple of hours up the thruway in cruise, no problem. Checked into a motel and bought the Lazair the next morning. I would come back the following week to pick it up. It's more than two month's later and no Lazair. Lot's of percoset , a 911 call at 2 in the morning, a ride to the hospital in an ambulance, seventeen hours on a guerney in the emergency room and a other night in the hospital. A couple of weeks later an epidural and next week another. No Lazair but thinking about it all the time. I even bought the last two rolls of tedlar tape from George Curtis and fiberglass wingtips from Mike. One day I put a chair out on the lawn, paced out 18 feet on either side and laid down a wingtip, sat down, closed my eyes and dreamed Lazair. My back is getting better and in a couple of weeks I hope I'll have my Lazair.
SO now the question:
I have read about alot of zig zagging around when your learning to taxi. I'm guessing this due to difficulty in keeping the engines synchronized when you are a newbie. Am I right ? or is there something else I am no thinking of? How much difference in rpm does it take to give you an erratic taxi line ? Thanks Art
Sorry if I bored you with the other stuff, I just thought I should explain why I'm still posting but never posted any pictures or talked about my plane.

as for taxiing, I find the elevadders quite useless unless there is some blast from the engines going over the tail surfaces. This is with my JPX engines though, and they idle quite slowly, whereas the Rotax's idle quite fast and maybe always are putting some air over the tail?

Either way, I find I use the engines 80% of the time for directional control for taxi and landing. at full power, the lazair tracks really straight due to the engines pulling the same amount.

When you taxi a Series 3 with 185s you use everything..... stick, rudders, brakes, and engine power as needed. When you start out the plane will feel very weird on the ground and takes a good bit of getting use to. The most imporant thing to remember is practice until you feel totally comfortable and bored. Once you reach that level you can graduate to fast take off runs and stops. From there it's on to low crow hops and first flight.

Get well soon Art, and use patience in the areas of concern for safety.

You will be happy to note that the Lazair become light on its wheels in takeoffs and landings and provides a soft takeoff run even over some somewhat rough ground....I was pleasantly surprised about this characteristic during my 10 crow hops, which resulted in NO hard landings, even though I felt they should have felt kind of hard in some cases by my apparent rate of descent

I have a series II and find that ground handling at slow speed in no wind conditions is not a problem, but you do have to play with the dual throttles to get things synced up properly for a straight run....comes in handy for crosswinds though.

Once your at ~10 mph it will go where you point it with rudder, unless the engines are more than a couple hundred rpm apart from each other.

Its actually quite easy to keep them synced by ear alone, even with the helmet(You need one that muffles the noise a bit or wear earplugs).

A takeoff run is dead easy......go to the end of the runway and dig your heels in.....give it full power and listen that they are synced, then let go of the brakes and you will go perfectly straight down the runway and have full rudder control the instant you let go of the brakes.

A slight and gentle pull on the elevator and your off and climbing at a good rate(400'/min).

I climb at 30-35mph at 400'/min which is not the optimum climb speed, probably 25 is best, but I feel like I am so much above stall that it just feels best until I have past 300' altitude.

PS: I have only had 2 flights though, but flyiing the Lazair is the easiest of any craft I have ever flown....about equal or easier than a 2-33 trainer Sailplane......Im a prior glider pilot with about 90 hours...last flown 6 years ago.

You must do those first flights in calm conditions though, so that you have a chance to become accustomed to the flight characteristics. Slowly work your way up to stiffer wind and more turbulent air.

Also remember that calm air on the ground does NOT mean calm air at 300'.

If you have NEVER flown in turbulence and thermals, you better take a flight with some one that has and go through some, or else you'll wet your pants!!!!!! ...the Lazair being so light can really get tossed around in strong conditions....you WILL need your seatbelt and helmet....but after you get used to it, you will enjoy it like going on a roller coaster in the amusement park!

Ray

<H5>Nothing is impossible...Even the word tells you Im-Possible!!!</ H5>

Ray if you ever get in a Series III you will find it quite a bit different than your Series 2. For the first while you would be all over the place until you figure it out. Probably a good idea to source more accurate instruments too.

Series 2 is a nosedragger. Series 3 is a taildragger. Not just a taildragger but a taildragger with two engines. To relate handling a Series 2 (on the ground) to handling a Series 3 (on the ground) would leave one to believe they are similar in characteristics which they really aren't. Each plane requires it own understanding and mastering. The Series 2 for example is very prone to tipping sideways in the wind while the Series 3 is prone to "tipping over forward" should one apply too much brake abruptly. This is why a "training wheel" was sent as a standard item in Series 3 kits. The plastic nosewheel really served no other function but to prevent flipping over of the plane by a panicked novice in training. It's not necessary to have a training wheel but it does not hurt to have one either. Learning to handle both of the versions of the plane really is no problem but it takes practice and patience. In the air both Series handle fine. Handling on the ground especially in winds is where you are most likely to get damage however. As a precautionary note training should always take place in calm or near calm conditions. Winds of any degree make it difficult to figure if control inputs are causing things to happen or if it the wind acting on the plane causing things to happen. Use common sense, a Lazair is light.